HPC Troubleshooting Methods 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A scheduled post failed and Hootsuite reports that the social account needs to be reconnected. What is the most likely cause?
- The Hootsuite plan was downgraded overnight
- The post exceeded the daily posting limit for Hootsuite
- The post was scheduled in the wrong time zone
- The account's access token expired or was revoked (Correct answer)
Correct answer: The account's access token expired or was revoked
Social networks issue access tokens that can expire or be revoked, for example after a password change, so the account has to be reauthorized in Hootsuite.
Question 2: Before deep troubleshooting, where should you check whether a problem affects all Hootsuite users?
- The Streams settings menu
- Your Analytics reports
- The Hootsuite status page (Correct answer)
- The Hootsuite App Directory
Correct answer: The Hootsuite status page
The Hootsuite status page lists current incidents and outages, so you can tell a platform-wide issue apart from a problem with your own account.
Question 3: Streams in your dashboard aren't loading correctly, but other websites work fine. What is a good first step?
- Delete and rebuild every board
- Upgrade to a higher Hootsuite plan
- Remove all social accounts from the organization
- Clear the browser cache and cookies, then reload Hootsuite (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Clear the browser cache and cookies, then reload Hootsuite
Stale cached data and cookies often cause display problems, and clearing them is a quick, low-risk first fix.
Question 4: An Instagram account can't be set up for direct publishing in Hootsuite. Which requirement is most likely missing?
- The account must have more than 10,000 followers
- The account must be verified with a blue check
- The account must be an Instagram Business or Creator account (Correct answer)
- The account must post at least once a day
Correct answer: The account must be an Instagram Business or Creator account
Direct publishing needs a professional account type (Business or Creator) that is properly connected, not a personal account.
Question 5: How can you quickly tell whether a browser extension is interfering with the Hootsuite dashboard?
- Turn off two-step verification
- Change the organization's time zone
- Reconnect every social account
- Open Hootsuite in a private/incognito window, where extensions are usually disabled (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Open Hootsuite in a private/incognito window, where extensions are usually disabled
Incognito windows usually run without extensions or cached data, so if the problem goes away there, an extension or the cache is the likely cause.
Question 6: A team member can't publish to a LinkedIn Page that the organization added to Hootsuite. What should you check first?
- The LinkedIn Page's follower count
- The browser's language setting
- Whether Ow.ly link shortening is turned on
- Their Hootsuite permissions for that social account (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Their Hootsuite permissions for that social account
Publishing access depends on the permission level the team member has been given for that social account in Hootsuite.
Question 7: When contacting Hootsuite Support about a failed post, which information helps them most?
- Your social network password
- Only the name of your Hootsuite plan
- The affected social account, the time of the failure, the error message, and screenshots (Correct answer)
- A list of every post you published that month
Correct answer: The affected social account, the time of the failure, the error message, and screenshots
Specific details such as the account, timestamp, exact error, and screenshots let Support reproduce and diagnose the problem, and you should never share passwords.
